New Package, Same Old Tasteby S Shane Thomas

Ben Kieley ranked, by many measures, a success. One of the
brightest scientific minds from the generation born while the colony traveled
through space on its twenty five year voyage to reach their new home world,
Haran. He kept physically fit, had a few close friends, and even became a lab
assistant for the colony’s head geneticist, Doctor Zimmerman. Ben simply could not
figure out how to get close with members of the opposite sex, not for lack of
effort.

“Hey Brenda,” Ben greeted his colleague and latest crush.
“Now that the travel ban around the colony is lifted I thought maybe you’d like
to take an afternoon and explore the woods south of the colony with me.”

The brunette took a large step back. Ben wouldn’t creep her
out if he didn’t feel the need to get so close when they spoke. She knew it
wasn’t just for her, she had seen him get spittle on Zimmerman’s face when they
discussed his assignments. Too bad, she mused, he wasn’t that far off from her
type other that his lack of personal space awareness.

“Sorry Ben, I’ve got plans.”

“I didn’t say when,” Ben said, leaning in.

“I know. I’m a busy girl, always busy.”

Ben focused on his projects the next couple days until the
rejection stung less. Doctor Zimmerman had been in the field
and retrieved a number of strange gems stones from the long deserted planet’s
original inhabitants. Zimmerman assigned Ben to inventory and catalogue the
stones. He’d met the two strange children who had undergone changes from
contact with the gem in the months prior.

As he worked in the same lab with yet another woman who had
spurned his affection, Ben began to wonder if a drastic physical change would
really be a bad thing. One of the orange gemstones had been drilled through
large enough for his necklace to slide through. Almost unconsciously, he slid
the new pendant under his shirt. No one would miss what had never been counted
anyhow.

Days passed uneventfully. Ben Kieley forgot about his charm
and about the situation with Brenda, who would smile so long as he didn’t cross
the room to her or speak more than a greeting. Zimmerman brought Ben along to a
colleague’s laboratory on the south continent for a month long study and by the
time the Doctor and assistant returned, Ben felt like a new man.

He recalled his theft while he shaved scruff from his cheeks
in front of the bathroom mirror in his quarters. The orange pendant glimmered.
Ben rinsed his face and stared hard in the mirror in attempt to discern what
changes the gem had initiated. Disappointed to see the same features, Ben imagined
the bulky muscles and stoic expression from a movie actor whose old films from Earth he watched
as a child.

Ben gasped as his skin began to swell, shrink and contort.
The actor he imagined stood before him, skin tone slowly changed to fit memory.
Ben’s close cropped hair dissolved into the shaved head from the films. The
gemstones had turned Ben into a skin changer.

Ben spent evenings perfecting the image of his new persona.
Then he found Brenda at a café he overheard her talk about with friends. The
new Ben settled in for a coffee and sandwich at a seat where he and Brenda
could make eye contact. As he finished the meal she got up and made for the
door. Ben panicked and leaped at his chance to speak with her.

“Hi, I couldn’t help but notice how lovely you look this
evening,” Ben said and beamed with confidence.

A look of disgust flashed across her face. “Thanks guy,” she
said as she took a half step back. He leaned so close Brenda feared the spinach
caught in his teeth would brush against her. She turned to depart.